Urban Growth and Housing Quality in Iran

Rapid urban population growth and the lack of effective policies in order to desired population settlement, has encountered Iran’s major cities with multiple social, economic and environment problems. Physical expansion of cities in order to settlement the increasing population, causes the formation of new textures surrounding old urban textures. In the new textures, urban housing is formed with the modern approach and least logical connection with common practice in the old textures. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to evaluate the housing quality and identify strengths and weaknesses in old and new urban textures to improve the quality of urban housing in Iran. Household survey were conducted to collect the needed data in the old and new textures in Khorramabad city. Results showed that the satisfaction level of housing quality in new texture is far more than old ones. The highest satisfaction level in both textures are related to housing basic facilities domain. However, satisfaction level of this domain in new texture is much greater compared to the old texture. The lowest level of satisfaction is related to the quality of neighborhood domain in old texture and to the access to public services domain in the new one. Results from the factor analysis to identify the dimensions of housing quality in old and new textures illustrated that housing quality is a multidimensional concept, studying of which requires considering all dimensions and aspects.     

Quality of Life in College Students with and without Social Phobia

Prior studies demonstrating quality of life impairment in phobia and anxiety disorders have relied upon epidemiological samples or clinical data. Using the same quality of life scale, the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36), in Iranian college students allowed us to study the impact of social phobia (SP) on quality of life among the college students. This report summarizes findings from a cross sectional study on Iranian students with social phobia studying at Shahed University. Quality of life was measured using the Short Form 36-item Health Survey (SF-36) which is a widely used and valid questionnaire to measure quality of life in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies. Three standard instruments were used to measure social phobia severity, namely Social Phobia Inventory, Social Interaction Anxiety Scale, and Brief version of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. The sample consisted of 202 college students, 72 with SP and 130 without SP. The main finding of this study was that students with social phobia reported significantly lower quality of life, particularly in general health (P = 0.02), vitality (P < 0.0001), social functioning (P < 0.0001), role functioning—emotional (P < 0.0001), and Mental health (P = 0.001) dimensions. Standardized summed scores for mental health components of the SF-36 showed that 36.2% of all the s with SP were severely impaired while 16.0% of the students in control croup were severely impaired. Findings demonstrated that Iranian socially anxious college students reported extensive functional disability, and lower well-being compared to those without SP. These findings should encourage education officers to implement systematic efforts to prevent and treat social anxiety among students.     

Uncertainty Reduction Approaches,Uncertainty Coping Approaches,and Process Performance in Financial Services

Developing a better understanding of the impact of uncertainty on process performance has been recognized as an important research opportunity in service design ( Hill, et al., 2002 ). Within this general research stream, our study focuses on the question of what managers can do to most effectively address operational uncertainty and mitigate its negative effects. To begin to address this question, we report on an exploratory study using a sample of professionals in the financial‐services industry who acted as informants on 108 financial‐services processes. These professionals were sampled from a population of graduates of a university in the northeastern region of the United States who were employed in the financial‐services industry. Based on these processes, we empirically examine the relationship between responses to operational uncertainty and process performance after controlling for customer mix, other uncertainty sources, and process type characteristics. Our findings suggest that process improvement—an uncertainty reduction approach related to the internal functioning of the process—as well as several uncertainty coping approaches are associated with better performing processes. However, uncertainty reduction approaches related to customer involvement with, and demands on, the process are not associated with better performing processes. We discuss the implications of our findings for determining what actions managers can take to reduce the negative performance effects of operational uncertainty and how managers can decide which of these actions to take. We conclude with a discussion of the limitations of our study.     

Multivariate singular spectrum analysis for forecasting revisions to real-time data

Real-time data on national accounts statistics typically undergo an extensive revision process, leading to multiple vintages on the same generic variable. The time between the publication of the initial and final data is a lengthy one and raises the question of how to model and forecast the final vintage of data – an issue that dates from seminal articles by Mankiw et al. [51 Mankiw, N. G., Runkle, M. and Shapiro, M. D. 1984. Are preliminary announcements of the money stock rational forecasts?. J. Monetary Econ., 14: 15–27. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] [Google Scholar]], Mankiw and Shapiro [52 Mankiw, N. G. and Shapiro, M. D. 1986. News or noise? An analysis of GNP revisions. Surv. Curr. Bus. May, : 20–25.  [Google Scholar]] and Nordhaus [57 Nordhaus, W. D. 1987. Forecasting efficiency: Concepts and applications. Rev. Econ. Stat., 4: 667–674.  [Google Scholar]]. To solve this problem, we develop the non-parametric method of multivariate singular spectrum analysis (MSSA) for multi-vintage data. MSSA is much more flexible than the standard methods of modelling that involve at least one of the restrictive assumptions of linearity, normality and stationarity. The benefits are illustrated with data on the UK index of industrial production: neither the preliminary vintages nor the competing models are as accurate as the forecasts using MSSA.     

Inference on the asymptotic behavior of covariance operator of first-order periodically correlated autoregressive Hilbertian processes

This paper is devoted to a study on the structure of tensorial products of periodically correlated autoregressive (PCAR) processes with values in separable Hilbert spaces. It will be demonstrated that the resulting processes are PCAR with values in the space of Hilbert–Schmidt operators. These processes are applied while studying the convergence rate, limiting behavior and asymptotic distribution of the empirical estimators of the covariance operators of PCAR processes.     

A new generalized odd log-logistic family of distributions

We introduce and study general mathematical properties of a new generator of continuous distributions with three extra parameters called the new generalized odd log-logistic family of distributions. The proposed family contains several important classes discussed in the literature as submodels such as the proportional reversed hazard rate and odd log-logistic classes. Its density function can be expressed as a mixture of exponentiated densities based on the same baseline distribution. Some of its mathematical properties including ordinary moments, quantile and generating functions, entropy measures, and order statistics, which hold for any baseline model, are presented. We also present certain characterization of the proposed distribution and derive a power series for the quantile function. We discuss the method of maximum likelihood to estimate the model parameters. We study the behavior of the maximum likelihood estimator via simulation. The importance of the new family is illustrated by means of two real data sets. These applications indicate that the new family can provide better fits than other well-known classes of distributions. The beauty and importance of the new family lies in its ability to model real data.     

Returnable transport packaging in developing countries: drivers,barriers and business performance

Abstract

This study, drawing on natural resource-based view, identifies drivers, barriers and the potential benefits of returnable transport packaging (RTP) – that is, the repeated use of packaging items – and conceptualises RTP as a technology and resource that supports organisational competitiveness. Specifically, it investigates the impact of RTP adoption on business performance, the effects of drivers, barriers and size of organisations. The data collection took place in Nigeria and South Africa. The findings suggest that RTP has a significant positive impact on business performance. Whilst prior studies seem to suggest that shrinkage and attrition are the major problems identified with the usage of RTP, our findings indicate that there are several other barriers affecting RTP adoption and the resultant performance advantage. The results also show that there is an increasing move towards adoption of RTP but some organisations are faced with financial constraints, especially the small and medium size enterprises. In addition, the results show that RTP is largely a ‘sustainability facing’ initiative with adopters motivated primarily by potential environmental, economic, social and operational benefits of adoption.     

The Internal Validity of the Trade-Off Method of Conjoint Analysis

The discovery of consumers' preferences for multiattribute products/services has recently become possible with the development of conjoint measurement techniques. Conjoint analysis uses an individual's preference ranking or rating of some deliberately manipulated constructs of a concept to determine his/her numerically valued preferences for levels of those attributes that comprise the concept. Generally speaking, there are two methods of data collection for conjoint analysis: the full profile and the trade-off methods. This paper calls into question the internal validity of the preferences obtained via the trade-off method. An empirical analysis, which is based on the subjects' preferences for selecting a hospital, clearly shows that the estimates derived from the trade-off method may not reflect consumers' true preferences.     

Marriage and Family Formation of the Second‐Generation Afghans in Iran: Insights from a Qualitative Study

In 2006, around 1.2 million documented Afghans remained in Iran, of whom half were second generation. This paper is based on the results of a qualitative study conducted in three settings: Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan, and draws on data collected via 80 in‐depth interviews and six focus group discussions with second generation Afghans in Iran. The aim of the paper is to explore the adaptation of second‐generation Afghans in Iran, particularly in relation to marriage and family formation. The results show that educational achievements and occupational skills of the second‐generation Afghans in Iran facilitated their adaptation to the host society, and inspired different marriage and family behaviors and aspirations in comparison with the first generation.